


Ghosts

by orphan_account



Category: escape the night - Fandom
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-09-15
Updated: 2018-09-15
Packaged: 2019-07-12 16:47:57
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,160
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15999326
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/orphan_account/pseuds/orphan_account
Summary: They think they’re done.They think they’ve defeated every monster and solved every clue.But they’re wrong.





	Ghosts

**Author's Note:**

> y’all are so sweet and lovely seriously thank you i definitely wouldn’t have been brave enough to continue if you hadn’t been so supportive! you guys are PHENOMENAL.

There were only three of them left.

Matt, Nikita and Joey sat together in the lounge, all three of them silent, too aware of their own breath.

Whenever Nikita closed her eyes, she saw Manny's face before she had pulled the trigger. 

He'd looked completely betrayed, drained of anything resembling hope.

She looked down at her hands.

"We... we should check out the church," Joey said, trying to break the tension. "That's where we left Calliope and Mortimer."

"Sure, okay," Nikita responded, lacking any of her usual fire.

Matthew just nodded. He'd been pretty monosyllabic since Rosanna died, not talking unless he had to.

It was colder when they headed out into the town. Joey noticed a blue smudge along the horizon, and started to walk faster. They didn't have much time before sunrise.

When they got to the church, an eerie light pulsated from inside, casting shadows on the hill and warding off any villagers who were still around.

"Who wants to go in first?" Joey asked, shivering, looking up at the decayed steeple.

"I'll do it," replied Nikita, flipping her hair, trying to regain some of her bravado.

She pulled open the doors and walked in. Matt looked back once, and followed her. Joey was the last one, and his hand lingered on the door handle for a second before he shut it behind him.

There was a tall amber structure near the front of the church that was giving off the glow they'd seen outside, and there was a crumbling hole in it.

Matthew moved closer, trying to see what had happened.

"Holy shit... it's Mortimer and Calliope," Nikita said, pointing. Their bodies were limp on the ground.

"The artifacts are all here, too," Joey whispered.

"Thanks for playing my little game," growled a voice behind them, and the three friends jumped.

It was the carnival master.

"I must say, you've done well. Exceedingly well."

Joey swallowed nervously, glancing around.

"But you have reached the end of your usefulness to me," he said, running a finger over one of the artifacts and setting it ablaze.

He watched the fire with reverence, seeming completely oblivious. Joey wanted to run, but just as he turned, the fire sizzled out and the carnival master was alert again.

He whipped around, and his eyes glowed blue in tandem with the crystal on his chest.

"I should mention, there are some friends of yours who want revenge."

"Wait, what's happening?" Nikita asked, as the carnival master's face slowly shifted into a demonic smile.

"Run," Joey said quietly. "Run, run, run!"

The three turned and sprinted out of the lounge, running as fast as they could, but the carnival master wasn't following them.

Matthew turned around, breathing heavily, and he saw the carnival master inside the church, still smiling. So he ran faster.

Once they were all safely inside the lounge, Matthew started to pace the length of the room. 

"Something doesn't feel right," he said, the most words he'd said for hours. "Why didn't the carnival master just follow us?"

"Maybe he got tired?" Joey asked, trying to lighten the mood.

"No, Matt's right. Something about this feels... wrong." Nikita spoke up, beginning to tap her foot.

"Could-" Matthew started to say, but lightning split the sky outside, followed quickly by a huge crack of thunder, deafening the trio.

They all screamed, and the lounge went dark.

"This is intentional," Joey said. "The carnival master's starting something."

"No shit, Sherlock," Nikita replied dryly, trying to let her eyes adjust, but there was simply no light.

Matthew curled his fingers into the carpet anxiously, tugging at the fibers. He could hear the building's foundation creak with the wind.

Since nobody could see her, Nikita let herself cry.

Joey was trying to figure out what to do when a terrible sound came from above them. 

They all looked up, even though none of them could see anything, and the roof of the lounge tore off, purple lightning forking through the sky above and lighting up the now-exposed room.

The rain was pouring in, and Matthew knew they wouldn't last much longer trapped in the lounge.

"Let's go," he said, grabbing the map and rolling it up in his jacket. "We can head to Fat Man Slims."

"In this?" Nikita asked disbelievingly, gesturing upwards at the horrible storm that was raging above the roofless lounge.

"We'll die if we stay. I'd rather die trying," Matthew stated, clipping on his badge.

"Okay," Joey responded, standing up. "I'll go too."

Nikita sighed. "I'm in, fine. But if we do a group cheer thing, I'm gone."

Joey rolled his eyes. It felt good to smile, even in a slowly flooding room.

Matthew crawled out into the arcade portion of the lounge. The machines were upended, and the windows were all shattered. Outside, lightning was striking the church over and over again, and a sort of vortex was forming overhead.

"That doesn't look foreboding at all," Joey said sarcastically from behind him.

"Let's go. We need to hurry," Nikita emphasized, reaching for the door, but it was ripped off of its hinges.

"Shit," she remarked, remaining surprisingly calm.

Matthew stepped outside first. The road was already swamped, muddy patches appearing between deep pockets of water.

It was almost impossible to stand still. The wind felt strong enough to pick Matthew up off of the ground.

With difficulty, he motioned to Joey and Nikita to follow him.

Nikita wedged her heels into the ground with each step, bracing herself against the wind, letting Joey hold onto her.

Finally, finally, they made it to Fat Man Slims, collapsing behind the door.

"That was way too much exercise," Nikita said, standing up, wobbly on her feet. 

Matthew laid out his coat to try and dry it, and when he spread it on the table, he noticed a note on the wall.

"There's only one way to stop the carnival master- with the Sword of Eternity," he read aloud.

"What?" Nikita asked, wringing out her hair.

"This note says that we have to defeat three... goners? Gremlins? I think? The words are smudged, but it basically says we have to retrieve three pieces of a weapon by defeating some type of monster," Matthew explained.

"That's all we've ever done, so I'm not totally surprised," Joey replied, trying to get his hair back to its neat little swoop.

"We have to go back out there, though?" Nikita asked angrily, gesturing to the window.

"Wait, I think the storm's stopped," Matthew said in response, sticking his head out the door. "There's not even any puddles left."

"This whole fucking thing makes no sense!" Nikita said, annoyed. "What are we even going to fight?"

"We'll have to go outside and see, I guess," Joey shrugged.

"This feels like a trap," Matthew muttered, but he followed the other two anyway.

It was quiet. 

The church was dark. There were no signs the carnival master was even there.

Treading carefully, the trio stood in the middle of the road.

"So... did everybody leave?" Joey asked.

Nikita opened her mouth to respond, but then her eyes went wide and she sprinted away from the group, towards the alley between the lounge and the police station.

"What?" Matthew asked, but when he turned around for Joey, he was gone too, over by the doll shoppe. "Am I alone on this?"

He sighed reached for the map, but he saw a pair of platform Oxfords disappear around a corner.

His breath caught, and the map fell on the ground.

You're being ridiculous, he chided himself. She's gone. Your best friend is gone. Get over it.

But he followed anyway.

He rounded the corner, and there was Ro.

Well, not really.

It was like Rosanna through a thick, translucent piece of glass; blurry, almost flickering in her movements.

She was a ghost.

The light shifted, and for a second, Matthew could hear her.

"Why didn't you save me?"

The apparition even sounded like Rosanna.

"No. No, this isn't you," Matthew replied, closing his eyes tightly. "You're not real."

"Matt, you let me die," Rosanna's ghost said, her transparent figure shimmering under the light of the moon. "You killed your best friend."

"No! That's not true!" Matthew yelled, crying now. "I wanted to save you!"

"You didn't," she said. The ghost's eyes were filled with sadness.

Matthew felt strength literally being pulled from him the closer he got to Ro. He tried to turn around, but when he did, he looked back and saw the ghost contorted in pain.

"Ro!" he shouted, running towards her, but when he got close, the ghost sapped the last of his energy, and he collapsed.

A little farther away, Joey was walking into the doll shoppe. He'd heard something coming from inside-maybe a voice.

He had forgotten how creepy this room was. Dolls still lined the walls, and blood was spattered everywhere.

Joey grabbed the door handle, planning to leave, but he heard the voice again.

"Liar."

This time, Joey ran towards the voice as fast as he could, not paying attention to his surroundings until it was too late.

He was back in the room with the Maiden of Madness.

"Traitor."

It was Colleen. Her ghostly figure was floating above him, her body ravaged with holes from the Maiden.

"Murderer."

"Colleen, I'm sorry," Joey apologized, stepping backwards. "I just had to keep my secret safe. It wasn't anything to do with you, I promise!"

"Liar. Traitor. Murderer."

Colleen started to scream, closing in on him, and Joey stumbled. 

He fell to the ground, everything going dark.

Nikita, meanwhile, was facing Manny, who had a round bullet hole through his head.

"Get away from me," Nikita pleaded. "Please, leave me alone!"

"I thought we were friends," Manny said. "I thought you had my back, Nikita."

"I-I do! I just couldn't decide!"

"You chose to kill me just so you could move ahead. You wanted me gone."

Nikita felt the waves of power emanating off the ghost, and she knew if she stood here any longer, she'd be drained of all her energy.

"You're not real," she said coldly, glaring at the ghost. Under her stare, the form shifted between Manny and some horrifying monster.

She came closer, digging her nails into her palms.

"You're not here."

The ghost changed into its true, monstrous form and crumpled to the ground, dissolving, leaving behind a worn-looking sword handle.

"No, no, no," Nikita heard someone mutter, and she ran towards the voice, holding the handle.

It was Joey. He was curled against the wall of the dollmaker's store, clenching his fists.

"Joey. Joey!" Nikita shouted, shaking him. "Snap out of it!"

Joey blinked slowly, glancing around in a panic. "Colleen, it's Colleen, she's here, she's here!"

"Colleen died in the Maiden, Joey. This is just a monster."

"M...monster?" Joey asked, and the panic in his face seemed to subside.

"Yes. Now, stand up, and tell her she's not real."

Joey's eyes narrowed, and he got up on his feet, albeit unsteadily, facing the invisible ghost.

"Colleen, you aren't real," he stated, crossing his arms tightly. "This is all in my head."

Nikita saw his face sag with relief, and she saw a scabbard appear.

"Grab it. That's the second part of the sword or whatever."

Joey nodded, breathing shakily. "Do you know where Matt is?"

"I have no idea," Nikita replied. "But we should probably find him."

"Okay, let's go," Joey said, and the two of them ran outside, scanning for their friend.

They found him on the ground outside of the cemetery, his body limp on the grass and his glassy eyes reflecting the cloudy sky.

"Is he... dead?" Nikita asked.

"No, he's breathing," Joey responded.

As they got closer, they could hear him mumbling.

"I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry," he repeated softly, eyes locked on the horizon.

"Matt? Matt, it's us," Joey said, trying to shake him out of it, but he didn't respond. "I think he's in it deeper than I was," Joey remarked.

"That's what she said," Nikita joked. "Sorry."

"How are we going to get him back?" Joey asked, turning to Nikita.

Nikita grabbed a bucket from by the building they were near, filled it with water, and dumped it on Matthew's head.

"That'll work."

Matthew sat up, gasping, his eyes slowly focusing on Manny and Nikita.

"Ro's right there," he said urgently, standing up. 

"No, she's not. This is just another one of the carnival master's tricks," Joey explained. "You have to realize that for this to end."

"I need to save her!" Matthew said hysterically. "I let my best friend die. I need to make this right!"

"Matthew, listen to me. You can't bring Rosanna back like we did with you. She's gone," Nikita responded.

"I wanted this to be real," Matthew said softly, finally seeming to understand. "I just wanted to see her again."

"We have to end the carnival master, Matt," Joey pointed out. "That's the only way we can avenge Ro."

Matthew nodded slowly. "Okay. Okay, let's do this."

Nikita and Joey watched Matthew walk towards the empty road, but suddenly it wasn't empty. The ghost was powerful enough that even they could see it.

"Matthew, don't leave me here," the ghost said, her voice catching with tears. "Please, I don't want to be alone."

Matthew faltered for a second. Not real, he thought. Not real.

"You didn't save me," she whispered. "I died alone."

"You're right," Matthew responded. "And I can't change that. But I can try to make sure nobody else dies in this town. You're not real, but these people are, and I have a chance to save them." His face softened. "If you're in there somewhere, Ro, I miss you."

For half a second, he thought he saw Ro's smile, but then there was nothing.

"Goodbye," he said.

And the ghost dissolved, leaving a silver blade.

He carefully picked it up and walked back to Joey and Nikita, connecting all three parts of the sword.

As soon as it was complete, the sword started to glow, brighter and brighter until all three of them had to close their eyes.

"Are you guys ready?" Joey asked, once they could see again.

Matthew and Nikita nodded, and right then, the carnival master appeared.

"Welcome," he said, summoning a white-hot ball of magic in his palm.

He had seven crystals attached to a necklace, of sorts, that was roped around his neck. They looked enchanted, somehow.

Matthew heard Ro's voice again. He glanced around for the ghost, but it was nowhere to be seen, and he was also hearing other competitors' voices.

He realized it was coming from the crystals. The souls of their friends were inside the necklace.

"He's got everybody," Nikita muttered, coming to the same conclusion.

Joey unsheathed the sword and ran at him without a moment of hesitation. He'd been waiting so long to do this. He'd watched so many of his friends die.

Lightning almost skewered him, but he threw up the sword to block it, and the electricity wrapped itself around the blade.

Joey braced himself against the ground, but he was slowly getting pushed backwards by the force of the face-off.

***

"We need to help him," Matthew said.

"With what?" Nikita asked incredulously. "Our minds?"

"The carnival master's focusing all his energy on Joey. If we distract him, it might give Joey the advantage he needs."

"Oh, great, more distracting," Nikita said drily. "It's not like that's worked out badly in the past at all."

"Let's just do it," Matthew replied. "You run that way and do something, and I'll run this way."

"Doesn't he seem too smart to fall for that?" Nikita asked.

"We don't have to trick him into giving us his credit card number or anything, just make him look away from Joey for a few seconds," Matthew responded, walking out from behind the graves and into the churchyard.

He stood a few feet away and jumped up and down, waving his arms. Nothing. Nikita tried running around, shouting insults. Nothing. The carnival master was only focused on ending Joey.

Matthew felt hopeless.

Then he remembered the matches in his pocket from the snake woman, and the way the carnival master had looked at the fire in the church.

"Nikita!" he shouted. She stopped in her tracks. Matthew waved the book of matches high in the air and mimed lighting a fire, to let her know what he was going to do.

Nikita nodded. Or maybe she was sneezing. It was hard to tell from this far away in the dark.

"Joey, we're going to help you!" Matthew called out.

Something flammable, something flammable... Matthew thought, looking around the area for anything that could keep the fire going.

He moved forward slightly, trying to see in the cemetery where the fight was happening, and heard the grass crunch underneath his feet.

The grass. The dry grass. It was fall in the town.

He crouched down and lit the match, dropping it into the grass, and a small fire started.

***

Joey was trying his hardest to maintain his stance, but the power of the carnival master was too much.

He couldn't even get close enough to use the Sword of Eternity. All he could do was try his hardest not to get killed.

Then, in his peripheral vision, he saw a light. Turning his head ever so slightly, he noticed Matthew and Nikita standing over a fire, throwing wood on it to try and get it larger.

Joey realized what they were doing, and he smiled, newfound energy powering his limbs.

The carnival master saw the fire, and his nostrils flared. For just a second, he was distracted, and Joey put all his power behind the sword, jumping up and driving it into the carnival master's chest.

An explosion of blue light erupted from the cut, and the crystals around his neck disintegrated, releasing the wispy spirits of their friends.

"We did it," Joey whispered, the sword all of a sudden heavy in his hands. "We did it!"

The three of them stood together, all watching the town around them.

The residents started to come out of their homes, rubbing their eyes and waking up.

"The sun's rising," Matthew said, watching the sky lighten.

"It's all over," Nikita replied, looking too.

They all thought about the choices that had led them here.

As they were walking out, Matthew grabbed Blanche from her perch on one of the carnie booths. He had been such a different person when he'd first won that carnival game.

"Let's go home," Joey said, and the three of them walked out of Everlock.

Matthew paused just on the inside of the gate and looked back.

For a second, he thought he saw Ro’s ghost, but then she was gone.

And then he turned and left the town, leaving hopes and dreams and monsters behind.


End file.
